The Mosgiel and District Lions Club has set up a "specialty Lions club" devoted to supporting educational establishments with funding efforts organised by a trust made up of educators from Mosgiel.
It was organised by Lions former international director Tony Hanning, who said there was a gap in funding available to schools for a variety of things that provided an educational advantage.
"Every school is working hard to fundraise for things that they don’t have the funds for."
Sometimes the government could not provide funds for everything, including overseas sports trips, new library resources and transport.
To ensure fair representation, members were encouraged to join from every school and early childhood centre as well as those in the community that had the educational needs of children at heart.
While schools often organised their own fundraising events, it put a lot of pressure on their small communities.
The specialty club would enable them to organise larger events targeting a larger pool to fundraise from.
Fundraisers could include anything from musicals to sausage sizzles.
Green Street Early Learning Centre manager Jo Morgan said it was really hard for it to do large-scale fundraisers.
The centre recently needed to buy four-seater prams, and it cost it more than $2000.
It collected the funds through a bingo night, but that added costs to parents who were already paying to send their children to the centre.
"The funding that we get from the government doesn’t cover the running costs of the centre."
Being part of the trust and having access to funds "that come from a much wider pool" would be "much better for us".
There will be a meeting for all who are interested in joining the specialty club next Thursday at the Mosgiel RSA Spitfire and Diggers restaurant from 7pm to 8pm.
